UConn Men Hope For A Little Healing Against Coppin State In The XL Center

STORRS — The Huskies aren't going to be able to wipe away the disappointment of the last three weeks in 40 minutes.

They can take the first small step back toward their accustomed plateau, though.

"We're just trying to keep the team positive," senior co-captain Ryan Boatright said. "Keep them motivated. I've been around a lot of years, where we've lost two or three straight. It's tough keeping your head and staying confident, especially for these young guys that have never experienced anything like that. Just have to work hard in practice, because there ain't nobody going to pull us out of this slump but us."

Losses to West Virginia, Texas and, most shockingly, Yale, the last two on last-second three-pointers, have dropped the Huskies (3-3) to the .500 mark. Their next opponent, mid-major Coppin State (1-8), Sunday at XL Center at 4 p.m., figures, on paper, at least, to provide a chance to get back the winning feeling. Even if UConn were to win by 50, as Hofstra did at Coppin State on Wednesday, the positive effect would likely be felt only within the team.

Within the team, though, is where the real healing needs to happen.

"We've got to stop the bleeding," coach Kevin Ollie said. "If it was a YMCA team coming in here, our antennas would be up. We're not looking at their record, we're not looking at nothing. … It's a game where we've got to look within and work on the things we've been working on."

STORRS – UConn has had a week to digest its last-second loss to Yale, and a week for injuries to heal. But it does not appear the Huskies will be at full strength when they face Coppin State on Sunday at the XL Center.

The Huskies won't be completely healthy for this game. Though Boatright, UConn's leading scorer, says he feels much better than he did against Yale, he is still recovering from a sprained left ankle and, over the past few days, from a bruised shin. Rodney Purvis, who has a high left ankle sprain, and Omar Calhoun, who has been out since Oct. 26 with a sprained right knee, are not likely to play.

So UConn, far from the glare of national attention, will have to get it done Sunday, basically, with the team that lost to Yale, 45-44, on Dec. 5, and then hope to bring a healthier team, and rediscovered mojo, back into the spotlight against Duke in East Rutherford, N.J., next Thursday, a real turn-this-thing-around opportunity.

"My focus is the same," Ollie said. "I'm not going to change that — we're a couple of free throws, a couple of seconds from being 5-1, and probably in the Top 25. So you've got to take the good and the bad. I don't even really look at it as bad. This is going to be good for us. We're not going to look at it as a negative; it's something that happened. We didn't want it to happen, but now, how can we respond positively to it?

"What we can do is work on in-game situations like we've been doing, but work on them even harder for when we get in that situation again, because we're going to be in that situation a lot. We're going to be in games like that where we're going to have to make plays. Our defense has been steady; on the offensive end we've got to make shots, and at the end of the game we've got to cover three-point shooters."

Roughly a year ago, UConn was undefeated — and with wins over Maryland, Boston College, Indiana and Florida hinging on the last possession, Ollie was making the opposite argument. Both are true, of course. The line between success and failure is thin, and the experience the Huskies had last year made the difference, especially later on when a championship was in the offing.

This team has to re-learn how to win. First, it has to shoot better from the start of games. This is the first game at the XL Center, so the Huskies will have to get used to the rims quickly and make shots, especially three-point shots, in which they are at 27.7 percent. Coppin State's opponents are shooting 51.2 percent, 45.4 percent on three-point attempts, and four — Oregon, Illinois, Notre Dame and Hofstra — have scored more than 100. That suggests UConn will have open shots and fastbreak opportunities.

Ollie expects Eagles coach Michael Grant to use a lot of 2-3 zone defense, something Texas and Yale used to slow the Huskies' momentum in the final minutes of the last two games, so UConn has worked on ball movement. UConn had only one offensive rebound against Yale, and was limited to 43 shots.

And Coppin State forces turnovers, 14.7 per game, so the Huskies will have to take care of the ball. West Virginia, which liked to press and force turnovers, caused 19.

Texas, which was holding opponents to 29 percent shooting, held the Huskies to 30.4 percent. Yale dictated its patient, Ivy League style at Gampel Pavilion, as the 45-44 final score indicated.

So the phrase "play UConn basketball" is more relevant than ever on Sunday; there is urgency for the Huskies to impose their will on offense, as well as defense.

"We just lost to Yale," Boatright said, "so you've got to go into every game thinking you've got to get a win. To lose four in a row would be devastating, so this is a must win game."